Are You Sabotaging Your Training?

Here are five important elements of endurance training that many runners overlook

aces don’t always go to plan, and sometimes it’s just not your day. But sometimes it’s because you’re overlooking one or more of the basics that make training effective. Here are five ways to avoid sabotaging your training.

R

f you’ve recently bought a smartwatch or fitness wearable, you may have noticed that it monitors your hrv, or heart rate variability, and you might be wondering what that is. This metric isn’t new, and apps have been around to test it for several years, but in recent months, trackers such as Whoop have brought hrv further into runners’ collective consciousness.

Unlike heart rate, which counts your beats per minute, heart rate variability refers to the time between heartbeats and how much that changes from beat to beat. That variability is controlled by the autonomic nervous system, which monitors physiological stress, making it a good measure of all your stressors, from training and lifestyle combined. For runners, especially Type As who often push until they’re overtrained and maxed out, understanding the balance between training and life can help you decide whether to do today’s hard intervals or opt for a yoga class instead.

Everything in your life plays into your hrv measurement – not just your last workout. Listening to soothing music before bed may impact it positively, while fighting with your spouse before lights out likely will not. Sipping a glass of water in the evening: good. Sipping a third scotch: bad. Even hearing traffic noise can cause jumps in hrv, especially if you’re using a constant tracker.

A recent study in France looking at stress levels in lockdown during covid- 19 found that not everyone responds to stressors the same way. “You might make the assumption that everyone is feeling more stressed, but some people actually feel better because they’re home with their families,” explains Marco Altini, PhD, creator of the app hrv4Training. The same would apply to a hard workout: your hrv might trend positively the day after an interval set, while your training partner sees a lower number because the workout pushed him beyond his limit.

When it comes to tracking, you have two options: wearables like the Oura ring or Whoop that will track hrv constantly, or an app like hrv4Training that relies on you to take the measurement once a day, preferably as soon as you wake up. Neither will be perfectly accurate,

Ibut round-the-clock collection has been shown to be less accurate during exercise – and like heart rate monitoring, can be subject to random spikes. Using an app that relies on your phone’s camera f lash to record hrv via your fingertip can also be tricky, and if done incorrectly or out of your normal routine (or after getting up to pee in the morning versus before) can skew the data. The key to either is consistency: wear the tracker 2 4/7, or be sure to take your measurement right when you wake up.

So, is high or low hrv better? That, too, is complicated. “Everybody understands that you don’t want your blood pressure to be super high or super low. You have a normal range where you should be,” says Altini. “hrv is similar: you simply want to stay within your optimal range.” What matters is the trend. A higher hrv doesn’t mean you’re a more athletic person – it’s not like VO2 max, or even resting heart rate. That said, a consistently high number is usually an indicator of a ready, alert state and found in healthy individuals. A consistently low number may signal chronic fatigue, while a number that dips low suddenly is a sign of a more acute stress, like a hard interval workout. (As long as it bounces back to your normal range within a day, Altini says a low number after a hard day is a good thing.) Ideally, you want your hrv values to be reasonably consistent from day to day.

The most important thing to remember is actually using the data as a way to check in with yourself. Tracking your hrv might be interesting, but if you’re not using the information to tweak your workouts, collecting it is of no benefit. If your numbers start trending lower than normal, consider reducing intensity for a few days: by slowing down when you’re stressed at work, you can optimize your performance in the long term. If your hrv is stable or even trending higher, don’t take that as permission to go harder or longer – consider it an indication that training is going according to plan, and stay the course.

Molly Hurford is a fitness and nutrition writer, ultrarunner, endurance coach, occasional yoga instructor and author of the Shred Girls series.